Our understanding of the universe is only as fine as the ìmodelsî
we build to explain it to us. Plato likened the universe to a giant
bowl, in which the one true god-like a master chef-mixed together
the ingrediants of creation. Later, after Newton and up through
the Industrial Revolution, the universe was likened to a giant clockwork
mechanism, and god was reduced to the role of the Prime Clockmaker,
content now to do nothing but watch creation wind down.

In the early twentieth century, new wrinkles were added to the
fabric of the universe: quantum mechanics, the Uncertainty Principle,
and Relativity, to name a few. The old mechanistic, deterministic
view of the universe was shattered forever-but what new model do
we have not to replace it with?

In the mid-1960ís, a powerful new technology was developed: HOLOGRAPHY,
in which the interferance patterns of twin laser beams create realistic
three-dimensional images. Interestingly enough, any fragment of
the holographic film can be used to create the entire original 3-D
image.

When University of London physicist David Bohm, a protege of Einsteinís
and one of the worldís most respected quantum physicists, encountered
holography for the first time, he was electrified (figuratively):
here at last was a new process on which to model our understanding
of the universe-THE UNIVERSE IS LIKE A HOLOGRAM.

This fascinating theory is the subject of Michael Talbotís absorbing
book, The Holographic Universe. Talbot explains the origin of the
holographic model in the work of Bohm-dissatisfied with the standard
theoriesí inability to explain all of the phenomena encountered
in quantum physics-and the work of Karl Pribram, a neurophysiologist
at Stanford University, who was likewise dissatisfied with the inability
of standard theories of the brain to explain various neurophysiological
puzzles... like for instance the appaarent NON-LOCAL existance of
memory within the brain.

Prior to the work of Pribram, it was generally assumed that specific
memories had specific locations somewhere within the brain tissues-called
ìengrams.î For example, a rat trained to run a maze would have an
ìengramî of the maze in its brain; find that engram and cut it out,
and the rat should become lost. But a series of experiments conducted
by Pribramís mentor, Karl Lashley, at the Yerkes Laboratory of Primate
Biology, demonstrated that this was not so: the rat brains could
be sliced, diced, shuffled, and fricassed-yet the rats still could
navigate the maze.

To Pribram, the only explanation was that the memories were NOT
located at specific sites within the brain, but were somehow spread
out or distributed throughout the brain. The problem was that he
knew of no process or mechanism that could account for such a state
of affairs-until he encountered holography.

Just as one fragment of a hologram can create the entire holographic
image (with admittedly less detail and lower resolution), so too
can one fragment of the brain remember the contents of the brain
as a whole (ditto on the lower resolution). Ergo: THE BRAIN IS LIKE
A HOLOGRAM.

And that is the thesis of Stanislov Grofís book The Holotropic
Mind. Grof, a former Freudian dissatisfied with traditional psychoanalysisí
inability to explain many psychological problems, is widely known
as the father of transpersonal psychology-the idea that a personís
psyche is not necessarily limited to his own brain. Under the right
conditions (psychoactive drugs or Holotropic Breathwork TM, e.g.),
a person can experience ìtranspersonalî states of consciousness,
and think the thoughts of other people, past lives, plants and animals,
the planet itself, or even the entire cosmos.

The holographic model came into existance when Pribram-already
convinced of the holographic nature of the brain-encountered the
work of Bohm, and discovered that the entire universe was like a
hologram.

To the naked eye, an un-illuminated piece of holographic film appears
to have no order or meaning. Its order is implied within the apparently
random interference patterns; illuminated by the proper light, the
implicate order becomes explicate and the image appears. Our three-dimensional
universe, likewise, is the explicate construction of a vaster and
more mysterious dimensionless realm, illuminated by the light of
consciousness.

[See also the Bose-Einstein Condensate model of consciousness within
The Quantum Society]

Bohm and Pribram realized that the holographic model explained
a number of mysteries both mundane and profound: how people with
hearing in only one ear can determine the direction from which a
sound originates, our ability to recognize the face of someone we
have not seen in many years even if they have changed greatly, and
the apparent inability of any theory, no matter how comprehensive,
to account for all the phenomena encountered in nature.

Michael Talbot takes these ideas one step further, and demonstrates
how the holographic model can explain telepathy, precognition, mystical
feelings of oneness with the universe (a specialty of Grofís as
well) and even psychokinesis. Naturally, these ideas have no place
in the old Newtonian model of the universe; but if the psi phenomena
is real, how else can we explain it?

The holographic model is highly controversial, and is by no means
accepted by a majority of scientists. However, many important and
impressive thinkers DO support it and believe it to be the most
accurate picture of reality to date.

Begin by reading The Holotropic Mind. After Grof has convinced
you of the reality of the brain-as-hologram idea you will be ready
to delve into the universe-as-hologram theory as explained by Talbot-these
two volumes are quite complementary. Once you grasp the essential
whole-in-part of the holographic model, you will be ready, in the
words of the poet William Blake: